1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to surface active compositions of the type wherein the surface compounds are composed of a cation active amine or trimethylene diamine moiety attached to one large hydrophobic group.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The long chain aliphatic primary amines and the long chain aliphatic N-substituted trimethylene diamines represent important classes of commodity chemicals having widespread utility in a variety of applications. Foremost of these conventional applications include, for example, the preparation of cationic asphalt emulsions for use in road construction; hydrometallurgical operations wherein such amines serve as effective froth flotation agents; and also in the oil industry which extensively makes use of the amines as metal corrosion inhibitors and wetting agents in general.
In the use applications noted above, as well as most others, a problem arises in the handling of said amines inasmuch as they are solid pastelike materials at the prevailing ambient temperatures. In order to obviate this handling difficulty, the obvious expendiency would be to market the amines in the form of a solution in an inert organic solvent. However, it has proven to be very difficult to obtain solutions thereof economically which in turn possess a required degree of freeze-thaw stability. Moreover, suitable solutions of this type are invariably "red label" products and thus suffer on this score.
It is known that the lower alkoxylated derivatives of the aforesaid amines are liquid materials which to an extent retain the surface active properties associated with the cation active amine base. Nonetheless, the sacrifice of surface properties resulting by virtue of such modification detracts from the attractiveness of this approach to provide liquid compositions.